1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a punched plate material carrying-out system, and more specifically to a system for carrying out a plate material punched by a processing machine (e.g., a punch press machine, laser processing machine, etc.) onto a punched product supporting unit (e.g., table).
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional punched plate material carrying-out system will be first explained hereinbelow. The system is provided with a punch press machine (as an example of the hole-forming machines). The punch press machine has a punching section for punching at least one punch hole at any desired portion in a plate material (work) to manufacture a punched product, and a plate material locating mechanism for locating the plate material at a correct punching position.
Further, after the plate material has been punched out as a punched product, the punched plated material (i.e., punched product) must be carried out from the punch press machine to the outside (e.g., a punched product supporting table). For this purpose, a guide member extending in an X-axis direction (e.g., a longitudinal direction of the plate material (work)) is provided near the punch press machine in such a way that a part of the guide member reaches the vertical portion of the punch press machine. A slider is usually mounted on the guide member so as to be movable in the X-axis direction, and further a lift frame is attached to this slider movably up and down. Further, a number of vacuum pads are arranged at regular intervals along the bottom surface of the, lift frame to suck all over the upper surface of the punched plate material (punched product). These vacuum pads can be switched from a suction status to a non-suction status or vice versa, respectively. In the prior art punched plate material carrying-out system, however, in order to uniformly suck all over the upper surfaces of the punched products of various sizes, a plurality of vacuum pads are arranged in the lift frame at roughly regular intervals both in the X- and Y-axis directions. Here, the number of the vacuum pads is determined large so that the punched products of the maximum sizes can be sucked for lifting.
In operation, first a plate material is shifted and located at the plate material punching position by moving it in both X- and Y-axis directions by the plate material locating mechanism, and then the located plate material is punched out at any desired portion of the plate material to manufacture a plate punched product.
After or when the punching is accomplished, the slider is moved to over the punching position; the lift frame is lowered to bring a number of the vacuum pads (determined according to the maximum product size) attached to the lift frame into contact with the upper surface of the punched products at roughly regular intervals; the vacuum pads are switched from the non-suction status to the suction status to suck all over the upper surface of the punched product. After that, the lift frame (i.e., a number of the vacuum pads) is lifted to move the punched product upward. After the punched product has been moved upward, the slider is moved in the X-axis direction away from the punch press machine, and then mounted on an appropriate product support table. Thereafter, the vacuum pads are switched to the non-suction status to release the sucked punched product onto the product support table.
In the conventional punched plate material carrying-out system as described above, however, since a great number of vacuum pads are arranged in both X- and Y-axis directions roughly at regular intervals on the lift frame so that the punched product of the maximum size can be sucked, that is, in order to suck all over the surfaces of various products of different sizes, there exists a problem in that the number of vacuum pads increases. As a result, the mechanism of the punched plate material carrying-out system is complicated with increasing number of vacuum pads, thus causing a problem in that the manufacturing cost of the punched plate material carrying-out system is relatively high. In addition, since the sizes of the slider, the guide members, etc. increase with increasing number of the vacuum pads, another problem arises in that the system size is excessively large.